Hey there people. It's me again. Sorry about the super long delay, and I hope you would still be interested in my stuff.
Yeah, this is a KBOW oneshot, and I think it's got more of the imagery and feeling thing going rather than my usual humour. I hope you like it, because I think its rather sweet.
This story is dedicated to all the wonderful authors on passiton.girls account. Thanks for doing such a wonderful project.
As I wrote this I felt very inspired by this song called End of the Summer by Dar Williams. It is an absolutely beautiful song and is one of my favourites. If you heard it before, I hope you like it too!
Sometimes, some words just need to be said out loud.
End of the Summer
The summer ends, and we wonder where we are,
And there you go my friends with your boxes in your car.
And you both looked so young and last night was hard you said,
You packed up every room
and then you cried and went to bed,
But today you closed the door and said
"We have to get a move on,
It's just that time of year when we push ourselves ahead,
we push ourselves ahead."
They spent all summer together.
They spent every single minute with each other. Riding brooms across golden fields, licking Butterscotch ice cream cones until the ice cream melted, chasing each other on yellow grass and catching butterflies. On hot sunny days they went out to the large plains skipping merrily and picking flowers. On rainy wet ones they stayed in the house and played wizard chess again and again.
They didn't experience so much of that though. Even when it did rain, Katie insisted they went out of the house. She would drag him out, barefooted, her feet dancing in the puddles as both of them got soaked. She didn't care if they were getting wet by the pelting raindrops, or that they were caught in the rain. It would be the end of summer soon, she told him, and they wouldn't have as much fun.
And it turned out Katie was right after all. She always was. Time was unusually short on pleasant days, and before they knew it, two months had passed. The summer was now fading away, and all the magic and fun would soon be gone
No more sleeping underneath the tree or dipping by the sparkling brook anymore. No more twilight confidence or basking in the sun. In another few days, the summer would be gone and they would return to school, until the next year came again.
Today was one of their last days, and it was coming to an end too. It was close to sun set, but they chose to stay out anyway, preferring to drag time as much as possible.
It was dry today though. Burnt orange coloured the sky, and they now lay in the middle of the golden field, the grass dried from the summer. Long stalks of barley shook like little white beads and the barley was scattered everywhere, and both of them were lying on a pool of it now. A small apple which they had shared was now stripped to the core. They had abandoned their shoes somewhere among the grass, and neither was eager to retrieve them back.
Oliver wasn't so sure what made this summer so different from any other ones so far. It just felt different. It was just like any other summer they'd spent together; him and Katie. Just them, playing and forgetting the rest of the world. Sharing apples, making wreaths of flowers…
They were lying in that golden field in silence beside each other, both not saying a word. It was comfortable silence though, and truth be told, Oliver preferred it this way. He wasn't eloquent with words, and wasn't much of a talker .Yes, this suited him quite well.
Of course as the summer died, he knew all these lovely moments would come to an end. Sure, they would still be best friends and stick around like peas in a pod, but it just wasn't the same. Something in the summer air had made it quite different here, but now the two of them would no longer be left to themselves but thrust back into the crowd again.
The magical feeling would be gone.
Oliver tilted his head to the right, looking at the lovely girl lying beside him. Her long dark lashes swept to rim her closed eyes, while a freckle or two that hadn't been there before lay contentedly on the tip on her nose. Katie looked very pretty, very much like the bonny English Rose she was. Her long dark brown waves were fanned out, scattered with little orange-and-purple wildflowers they had picked and weaved onto her hair.
Those little lavender and orange wildflowers were her favourite, and they grew in abundance in these fields in the summer. They didn't know its name, and neither of them had bothered to find out. They had been walking and picking them all morning, and he had weaved them into her lovely hair, admiring its effect on her. They were his favourite too.
Oliver spotted a faint hint of smile playing on Katie's lips, and wondered what she was thinking. He could never really guess what was on her mind, although sometimes he did get pretty close. But you could never tell with Katie, she was full of surprises. Sometimes he just learned to go with the flow. She seemed to live by this method anyway, just living in the moment. Her flowered sundress flared out, tainted a little with grass stains. Oliver turned his head back, and stared out into the glorious sunset.
Perhaps she was merely reliving the summer through her head. Perhaps she was thinking of all the fun she had. Perhaps she was not thinking at all, but just enjoying this very pleasant day, how the flowers smelt and the warmth of the sun. Yes, that was probably what Katie was doing. It seemed the most likely.
He sighed. It was the end of summer. And who knew? Maybe it was the last one they would spend together? It would be their last year in school, and after that maybe they would be on their own, walking down different path of their lives. She would go her own way, and he would go on his, never to meet again. At least, their summers would never be like this again.
They wouldn't be children anymore. They would be adults, not longer the carefree teenagers they were. They were never going to be kids again, never going to go back to their lives before. They were going to go out into the harsh cruel adult world, to get jobs and worry about their lives. They would never be like before.
Not like this anyway.
He felt a little sad at this thought. He had seen people forget about their friends, too absorbed in their lives to keep in touch. He didn't want him and Katie to be that way. Would she forget who he was? Would she fail to recognise him? Would she not remember to call?
He hoped not.
He loved Katie. He had for a very long time. He was afraid to admit it to himself; it was also that he didn't dare. There were just too many what ifs. What if she didn't feel the same? What if they became awkward? What if she started avoiding him? What if…
He heard her breathe in the cool summer air, and unconsciously did the same himself. Katie meant more to him then he realised, she was that important to him. Without her there would be no lovely summer days, no laughter in the bubbling brook, no spirits in the great fields. It would just be dead.
There was something so special about their friendship he couldn't describe. Never mind that she was bubbly and that he preferred the golden silence; they got along almost too well. She said he made her enjoy the silence, and that it was better than conversations itself sometimes. Oliver didn't know why she felt this way, but he knew exactly what she meant. It was just like how he found himself unconsciously wanting to speak more and more in her presence.
They were happy like this. He wouldn't, no, couldn't, risk jeopardizing their friendship.
He tried to recall the entire summer, and found that his memory was only filled with golden fields, Katie and little wildflowers. He wondered if there was more that he should remember, but then he felt the truth. No, those were the important ones. The rest were only details.
He watched as the passing birds soared by, spreading their wings wide in the orange sky. He heard the chirp of the birds as they danced in the slight wind with the falling leaves, and the creases on his forehead disappeared. He loved the sound of summer, and every single thing about it. Hopefully he would be able to enjoy it again… Like this.
The slight wind was an indication of nightfall, as the temperature lowered. The gale would grow just a little bit stronger. It indicated the end of today… Of summer.
He would miss it. Oliver would never forget it. And he hoped Katie wouldn't either.
He heard Katie stir a little, and Oliver smiled, noting how nice the dying sunlight looked against her skin. He stretched luxuriously next to her, knowing it was now or never.
He reached out and placed his hand on top of hers, creating contact between the two of them. And slowly, she entwined her little fingers around his, the rough palm of his hand encasing her smooth one. They were holding each other's hand now.
Still he remained quiet, enjoying the slight flutter in his heart. He knew exactly what to say for once, and he was finally ready to say it to her.
Katie looked right at him, her eyes fixed upon Oliver's expression. There was the usual comfortable silence between them, but she felt compelled to break it.
"What are you thinking about?" She asked, more to break the silence than anything.
" How much I love you," Oliver replied, looking straight into her eyes.
There was a momentary eye contact before they turned their heads back. Both of them now staring into the orange sky, and neither spoke again Slowly but surely, he felt Katie's hand clasp his again, giving it a slight squeeze before holding it tighter than before.
A few more precious minutes passed, and Oliver tilted his head to look at Katie again. Her eyes were once again closed, and there was a peaceful expression on her face. The crown of purple and orange flower were still scattered in her hair, and she was once again smiling. He knew that this time, she was just enjoying the pleasantness of the moment.
He smiled, fingering one the dried flowers on the silky strands. Gently he removed one of the little purple flowers from her hair, and toyed with the little bud. Oliver looked at it tenderly, and held it beneath his nose, trying to sniff its delicate scent of summer. Its smell was faint, but still there. At last, he breathed in deeply to inhale the sweet scent, and then quietly pocketed the little lavender wildflower into his pocket, glad that she didn't notice.
It's the end of summer, the end of summer,
When you hang your flowers up to dry.
I saw the fields beyond the fields, the fields beyond the fields.
And the colors are much brighter now,
It's like they really want to tell the truth,
We give our testimony to the end of summer,
It's the end of summer, you can spin the light to gold.
Haha the lyrics aren't fitting really. But it has such beautiful lyrics I could help myself. If you listen to the song and need an interpretation between Oliver and it, just PM me. I hope you guys enjoy it and please REVIEW!!!